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Crack Pot Seafood Restaurant
Categories: Restaurants Food Specialty Food Seafood Markets Restaurants, Seafood Markets [Edit]
8102 Loch Raven BlvdTowson, MD 21286
(410) 828-1095
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- No
- Wi-Fi:
- No
- Good For:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
- Noise Level:
- Average
- Has TV:
- Yes
- Caters:
- No
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
14 reviews for Crack Pot Seafood Restaurant
14 reviews in English
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Review from Mike B.
Towson, MD
1/23/2012
I have been searching for a great seafood joint for a long time and finally found it! The Crack Pot (in Towson... dont be confused with the Bel Air one that closed down!) is my new favorite place to go for some dinner and drinks with the wife or a night out with friends. The atmosphere is exactly what you would picture in "old school" crab-house. Its pretty awesome! By no means is it a fancy place, but a great casual place for good grub. I have loved the crabcakes everytime I have gone (the best around IMO), but noticed a new item recently - The Shrimp Cake. I was hesitant to try it, but the price was so good I thought i'd give it a try - boy, am I thankful I did... It was so good its my new favorite dinner item! Everyone should give it a try... its that good! If you are looking for a delicious crabcake or hard crabs - this is the place to go! It is a true Baltimore Crab House and you won't regret your visit. I haven't tried much else on the menu yet, but hope to if I can ever get away from the Crab Cakes and Shrimp Cakes. I have had the wings and a burger which were both the best I've had in a while. Trust me - this is a place you want to go to feel right at home with a great meal. I have found the staff including the owner to be some of the kindest people I know and always so welcoming. They recognize you and make a point to say hello. It's a place you don't want to miss. Last time I was in the whole Towson Universirty Mens Lacrosse team was there and having a great time... it was packed. Hopefully I can still get my spot at the bar since the word seems to be spreading!
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Review from Geoff c.
1/17/2012
The menu claims that the crab cakes are "world famous specialty" crab cakes. They were pretty good, but not incredible. The same goes for the sides. The mashed potatoes may have been from powder mix. No complaints about the food, but a bit underwhelmed in general. Lackluster, perhaps.
The bill for a hawaiian crab cake sandwich, shrimp cake dinner, and maryland crab cake pounder dinner for two was $81. With tip, $94. Not worth it in my opinion. There is a wide variety of styles of crab cakes. And the shrimp cakes is pretty innovative. I guess...
The service was a bit lacking. There were only two servers for the whole restaurant. Granted its not a very big restaurant, but there were still a decent number of diners, and the two servers were overworked. The food took a while to come out. I was with a few friends, so the augmented wait wasn't a big deal - we had good conversations. But in spite that, it still took long enough for me to notice.
They also have soft shell crabs, and while I think the experience of taking a mallet to get to your crab meat is something you should experience while visiting Baltimore, Crack Pot doesn't quite do that experience justice. Obrycki's was better. -
Review from Michaek S.
Lutherville-Timonium, MD
6/28/2011
Go in expecting a bar with some decent dishes, you'll be happy. Go in expecting a real, fancy seafood restaurant- you'll be sad.
Best times we've had there are eating at the bar, a pound of steamed shrimp- simple, w/ Old Bay, and a big thing of fries, with Happy Hour drafts. Perfect. Interesting East Baltmore local-types (this part of Towson is right on edge of Carney/Parkville), friendly folks and service, just divey enough yet still clean enough to not get scared of eating. BAR IS COOL!! in a retro, neighborhood kinda way.
Part of the charm is that it's faux-nautical time-capsule decor and beaten-up furniture makes it the opposite of anything pretentious-- I find it relaxing, the kind of place where you feel it's fine to slouch in your chair and pretend you're a kid out with your parents again in 1968- albeit a kid sucking down cheap beer!
Folks malleting away their crabs seem to love those, to.
But--- start getting away from simply steamed shrimp/crabs, or deep-fried fish sandwiches....and it gets extremely mediocre.
Crab cakes shouldn't need flavorings!! If I want pineapple flavor, I'll eat a freakin' pineapple, not a "Hawaiian Crabcake." I like to taste crab, with a hint of spice; not crab as texture for strong flavorings.
All other real meals I tried there-- just disappointing; sides are canned or too plain (like giant hunk of barely steamed, not seasoned one bit, broccoli), most stuff clearly frozen and not of highest quality.
Go in for some crabs or steamed shrimp, some fries or deep-fried apps that are tasty despite their generic frozen-ness, (like the always tasty generic food-service mozzerella sticks or jalapeno poppers), cheap beer at Happy Hour-- you'll have a great time!! Just don't venture furhter.
PS- if you stay until after 9, the dining room gets converted to ping-pong tables!! -
Review from JIm h.
Baltimore, MD
9/3/2010
This is one of those restaurants that seems to surf on it's previous glory than for its current goodness. I went there not too long ago with my girlfriend for, what else? Crab cakes. The place was packed with mostly old people who all seemed to be getting into their meals.
I'm not a huge crab cake fanatic, not having been born here, but I DO like well made ones. My crab cake seemed rather soggy with a lot of filler, and lacking any flavor. I thought that maybe since their clientele was older they were trying to pan down the spice. My girlfriend felt the same about hers. I recall waiting a long time for our meals to come out and was just very disappointed with the meal and the price they want to charge for them. A step up is the crab cakes at Glory Days Grille...and those are just average. -
Review from Tim W.
7/15/2010
Decent crab cakes.
Service is good. They offer tons of different flavors of crab cakes like Jerk, Italian and Hawaiian among others.
Interior is in desperate need for an Extreme Home Makeover. It looks like an 80's Nautica clothing photo shoot. -
Review from Yan Z.
Middle River, MD
7/4/2011
This is a terrible place. The food is mediocre and the service is ridiculous. Our waiter stood there and talked for like half an hour and never come back to fill our drinks or ask us what we need. We tried to to get his attention by asking other waiters and was told to wait some more. I was so ashamed because I heard that their crab cakes are good and took a few friends with me there. Definitely learn my lesson. Never ever coming back here again. If you want really crab cakes, try the Corner Stable up at Timonium.
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Review from Lauren G.
6/1/2010
Most of my love for this place comes from memories as a child. My mom and dad ate here long before I was born (in 86), and continued to go well until I was 10. I always, without fail, ordered a tuna sandwhich. I remember loving them and always finishing them. I recall when I was younger, my mom would always mention that her mother ate here all the time. One time she threw a hissy fit because my grandfather forgot to make a reservation for a Friday night, and she couldn't be seated right away. According to my mom, this was the place to be, and seeing as her mom was insane and would do that, I'm inclined to agree.
Fast forward to when I was 18. I still longed for the place since my parents stopped going (my dad doesn't eat seafood anymore), and my sister wanted to go back too. So her and I went one summer afternoon. She had a crab cake, I had a tuna sandwhich. It was like a party in my mouth. My sister loved her crabcake, which thus started her fierce love affair with crab cakes.
We went back a while later with mom and got crabs. We all had a good time, and the crabs were good.
Well, we stopped going again for whatever dumb reason (boggles my mind why we stopped both times. My mom works down the street), but last Friday my boyfriend surprised me and took me there! I'm guessing he got tired of me constantly telling him that we needed to eat there.
He got a crabcake, and I got a deep fried crab puff. We both enjoyed our food. The puff was not as good as the tuna, but I wanted to be daring and try something new. I still love this place, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.Listed in: OM NOM NOM
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Review from Rani P.
8/3/2009 1 photo
I was visiting family in Baltimore and made a special request for crab since Maryland has forever impressed me with their delicious sea creatures. They had just moved to the area, so researched online for a good place to go (unfortunately, they are not yelpers). When it came down to it, this place seemed close, reasonably priced and had crabs! We get there, and it's part of a strip-mall. Not the worse thing in the world, there have been some great secret treasures in not the most attractive places. The atmosphere was stuffy, and we had to struggle to hold everything on our table so the waitress could put a paper sheet on our table.
We ordered crab for the table (which isn't on the menu?) and a pretzel with crab dip. DELICIOUS... then the entrees came. We decided to all split things so we can try everything. The sides reminded me of my elementary school cafeteria food- and the soft shell crabs were not edible- they were so fishy I couldn't even pretend to like them. The crab cakes were to die for- why did we just not order these? I also got a bite of a steak, which tasted like any other steak.
Would I recommend it? Maybe. Was it a perfect place to go when there are other options? Nope. Lesson learned, check yelp before you go anywhere? YES. -
Review from Jessica L.
Baltimore, MD
6/15/2008
The Crackpot Seafood Restaurant was opened in 1971 and offers a casual, comfortable setting, One side of the restaurant has a long, narrow bar area, while the other is all wood-shingled walls, paintings of sailboats, and crab pots around the light fixtures. If you are having crabs the wooden tables are covered with sheets of rough brown paper, and we were given a plastic basket with wooden mallets, paper napkins and plastic knives.
The Crackpot offers several crab cake variations, including Italian ones with tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese and Hawaiian ones with ham and pineapple (plus a few other variations beside a regular crab cake).
We got there around 2:00. About 5 people order crabs and the rest of us ordered of the lunch menu whereas, a few ordered off the dinner menu. The lunch menu has many sandwich offerings and light fare orders of certain things. The dinner menu offers a variety of seafood and land items.
I started with the Cream of Crab soup. It was good but lacked the kick of sherry that a lot of places put in it. It had an average amount of crab in it- but of course it could have had more.
For my main course I had the light fare crab cake that came with 2 sides. The crab cake had a lot of meat but was dry and according to my taste buds lacked flavor. It was also very small compared to a bunch of other places. My broccoli was cooked well but had nothing on it and was served not very hot- in fact when I asked for butter it didn't even melt when I put it on. My French fries were over cooked (however a few other people had some that were done perfectly). Overall, I was very disappointed.
Some of the other entrees that were ordered were the Crab Imperial, Stuffed Lobster Tail, Broiled Scallops and Shrimp Basket. The person sitting next to me got the Crab Imperial and was disappointed she ordered it and wishes she got the crab cake.
AS for the crabs they were dirty the way they should be and the people eating them were enjoying them. However the price for me that day was a bit step for the size that they were getting. This place may just be good for crabs and that's it.
Overall, I must say I was disappointed. I had been here around 4 yrs ago and thought things were pretty good. I am not sure if I will be going back to this place at all to give it another chance (even with the http://Restaurant.com savings coupon). The only thing I would consider going back for is the crab. -
Review from Patricia H.
CA
7/31/2008
The Crackpot was just OK. The place itself is cool - very nautical atmosphere, which is just what you want in a crab joint, ya know? Our server was new to the game, but very sweet and very efficient.
We started off with the mushrooms stuffed with crab imperial - delicious. I had an order of the mussels, which was really skimpy. I think I had about a dozen tiny mussels for $8.95 or so.
My hon of hons husband and his mother had the crab cakes, which were served with a choice of two sides - baked potato, mashed potato, broccoli, cole slaw, french fries, veggie of the day. The crab cakes were great, but the mashed potatoes were completely devoid of flavor. I had the soft shell crabs, which were inexplicably served on top of slices of white bread. Hmmm????
In any event, an OK place to go, but there are much better crab joints in the area so we probably won't go back again. -
Review from B T.
Fairfax, VA
8/16/2009
Good Crabcakes and seafood. good selection of seafood items. Not Spectacular but not bad either.They have a bar and restaurant area.
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Review from Amy C.
3/17/2009
I used to live one neighborhood over but didn't try it until after I moved away. Now I try to stop in for a meal every time I visit. My usual order is half a dozen steamed crabs (yes, all for me!). The service is great and the atmosphere is very casual and laid-back.
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Review from Camille C.
Baltimore, MD
9/3/2010
Don't even waster your time and money. Overpriced food. Outdated décor. Our server seemed nice but didn't do a good job. He never stayed on top of our refills and wouldn't clear away dirty plates. If Maryland is known for their crabs (and I know they are) then this place is not doing it justice. I had the crab cake sandwich and it was okay. Not good enough to come back to, though. The only thing there that I believe we all enjoyed was the crab stuffed pretzel (It was $13... yikes). If you're looking for a great place that serves good crabs with a relaxed atmosphere... do not go to the Crack Pot (or Crap Pot... that's what all my friends called it once we left). I guess the main reason I wouldn't go back is because they really try to make you feel like it's an upscale restaurant... and I wouldn't mind paying the big bucks if it really was but it's not. It's stuck in the 80s. And beware...they love to add a lot of salt to all of their food. This place needs Gordon Ramsey to teach them a thing or two. Kitchen Nightmares might be calling this place shortly;)
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Review from Lee M.
Baltimore, MD
9/23/2008
Service was average. Food was pitiful. Small portions, horrible salads, burnt steak, rubber tuna, and weak coffee. The decorations are cheeseball. Chipped plates. One of the legs on my chair was missing about 2 inches.
